This report contains a degree project made by the mechanical engineering students Lennart Andersson and Daniel Jansson. The project has performed in assignment by SOMAS Valves AB in Säffle. SOMAS are leading in development on control and on/off valves. To maintain this position they always want to improve their products. One way in this development is valves that are more tightened.The purpose with our project was to investigate another seat design on a HiCo (High Cobalt Alloy) seat to a SKV 150 PN 25 valve and compare this to an original HiCo seat.By modifying the seat on a ball valve we want to achieve a valve that leaks lesser then a valve whit original seat.

The aim of this thesis is to describe the development of profitability and capital structure in Swedish quoted companies during the period of 1990 to 2004. Further, the aim is to determine the relationship between profitability and leverage in order to conclude whether the choice of capital structure supports the pecking order theory or the trade-off theory of capital structure. The findings show that return on assets fluctuates between 3 and 11 percent and that return on equity fluctuates between 3 and 22 percent during the period. Further, the leverage and the cost of debt have decreased. This indicates lowered financial risk in Swedish quoted companies in the period between 1990 and 2004.

Background: The Swedish life-insurance business has been extensively criticised lately due to broken promises to customers as well as due to scandals that some companies within the business have been involved in. The companies within the Swedish life-insurance business find themselves in a so- called crisis of confidence, something that is created in and by media. A company that finds itself in a crisis of confidence somehow have to manage the situation and crises of confidence can also result in different kinds of changes. Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to explore and analyse how individual life- insurance companies manage crises of confidence. As a consequence, the aim is also to investigate in what way crises of confidence are initiators to change.

Background: The Swedish life-insurance business has been extensively criticised lately due to broken promises to customers as well as due to scandals that some companies within the business have been involved in. The companies within the Swedish life-insurance business find themselves in a so- called crisis of confidence, something that is created in and by media. A company that finds itself in a crisis of confidence somehow have to manage the situation and crises of confidence can also result in different kinds of changes. Purpose: The aim of this thesis is to explore and analyse how individual life- insurance companies manage crises of confidence. As a consequence, the aim is also to investigate in what way crises of confidence are initiators to change.

Throughout many years there have been discussions within the European Union (EU) regarding harmonization and improvement of accounting rules for companies with listed shares or other securities. The ambition exists to adopt, the within the union applied accounting standards, to those applied globally. These discussions lead the year 2002 to adoption by the council and parliament of international accounting standards (IFRS). The ordinance meant that all listed European companies have to adopt international accounting standards, accepted for application within the EU, for their consolidated accounts.During July 2003 the Swedish Government Official Reports issued a report (SOU 2003:71) stating, among other things, the differences and oppositions of implementing IFRS on a corporate level in Sweden, since corporate disclosure is regulated in Swedish law by Bokföringslagen (BFL) and Årsredovisningslagen (ÅRL). One of the main obstacles for the full implementation of IFRS is that a company?s annual report underlies the governmental taxation and an implementation of IFRS would affect this balance.

Since January 1st 2005, public companies within the European Union shall prepare their consolidated accounts in conformity with the international accounting standards. The adopted accounting standards are IASB?s IAS/IFRS completed with interpretations. Furthermore, member states may permit or require public companies to prepare their annual accounts according to IAS/IFRS. Sweden has not yet given companies the ability to use IAS/IFRS in the annual accounts due to taxation difficulties the strong relationship between accounting and taxation brings.

Background: Thanks to the globalization and the EU the international trade is growing faster than ever and companies are able to change ownership across the borders of the nations. Today one can talk about global marketplace with a deeper integration of the economies of the world. The rapidly growing list of mergers of Swedish companies since the last 10 years indicates that the global companies of today is using mergers as a strategic tool for continue their growth. However the number of unsuccessful mergers is big. The need of understanding and knowledge about different cultures is growing in the global business climate of today, since the collaborations across de national borders are increasing.Problem formulation: Which international strategies are fortunate in international mergers with Swedish companies?Purpose: The purpose is to analyze the integration of the three mergers; Vin&Sprit ? Pernod Ricard, Astra - Zeneca and Telia ? Sonera.Method: This study is a case study with a qualitative approach.

The purpose of this thesis was to find out how travel agencies work with relationships to their customers on the Internet. A case study with two companies was conducted, Ticket and Resia. In all four interviews were done, two in every company that served as basis for our conclusions. The study showed that it is important for travel agencies and other types of companies to create awareness of their web site in as many ways as possible and make it easy for the customer to find the web site. The contents on the web site have to be of current interest, it should be well structured and the usage of the web site should be easy.

Textil- och konfektionsindustrin blir alltmer globaliserad och ställs inför hårdare krav då konsumenterna efterfrågar allt billigare varor i snabb förändring. Sedan flera decennier har europeiska konfektionsföretag flyttat sin tillverkning till länder med lägre arbetskostnader för att uppfylla kraven om låga priser som europiska tillverkare har svårt att uppfylla. En stor del har flyttats till Kina men även till andra länder i Asien. Nu håller marknadsförhållandena på att förändras igen genom tillväxt- och utvecklingsländernas starka utveckling. Förändringarna syns tydligast på Kinas marknad genom stigande priser och mindre kapacitet för europeisk produktion.

Research shows that almost 30 per cent men and 20 per cent women at the age of 16-24 in Sweden download music on a regular basis instead of buying records. Thanks to modern technologies teenagers of today have become used to downloading music illegally from theInternet. Even though legal alternatives, such as Spotify, have become popular, the behavior of illegal download of music still persists. What do record companies do to prevent this phenomenon and why do they go to such length to stop this widespread movement? The question is, why is illegal download of music a problem ? and for whom? To investigate this I?ve read books about the subject, analyzed web pages of alternative record companies and interviewed a drummer in a local band.

Construction companies in Sweden have for recent years seen an increase in the numbers ofwarranty complaints associated with the market of resident buildings and the cost for this hasbeen measured to over 1.2 billion SEK per year. Working with poor quality cost as a way ofcreating insight about defects within the company?s processes is a method developed and usedby the manufacturing industry for decades, but have not yet reached the construction industry.This study has been performed in collaboration with a Swedish construction company, wherethe author has been stationed at the aftersales division for residential buildings. Owing tocircumstances, this published report has been made anonymous regarding the company whowill further on be namedthe Company. The Company is aware that warranty claims producegreat costs and has requested a way of putting cost and cause to specific claims in order ofreceiving a more specific cost view and to make the reuse of knowledge more efficient.

The purpose of our study is to examine the bloggers? influence on the brand?s image to see whether and if so in what way the blogging trend affects the brands. We also want to analyze how companies use bloggers in their marketing. This is a subject that has attracted our interest and that experience has not been touched in a higher extent. Our purpose has led us to the following research questions;Which relationships occur in collaborations between businesses and bloggers from a marketing perspective? In what way in terms of reciprocity can relations be described? To what extent can the credibility through blogs be affected in terms of how brands are presented in the blog? In this study we have used a qualitative method with an abductive nature to create a deeper understanding of our chosen subject.

Abstract Title:                               Goodwill ? differences and similarities between how IFRS and U.S. GAAP treats goodwill Level:                              One year master, 15 credits Author:                           Oscar Larsen and Thomas Karlsson Supervisor:                     Leif Carlsson Examiner:                      Cecilia Lindh Year of publication:      2011 The main issue:              What are the differences and similarities of the treatment of goodwill between the U.S. GAAP and IFRS? What can the transition from U.S.

Construction companies in Sweden have for recent years seen an increase in the numbers ofwarranty complaints associated with the market of resident buildings and the cost for this hasbeen measured to over 1.2 billion SEK per year. Working with poor quality cost as a way ofcreating insight about defects within the company?s processes is a method developed and usedby the manufacturing industry for decades, but have not yet reached the construction industry.This study has been performed in collaboration with a Swedish construction company, wherethe author has been stationed at the aftersales division for residential buildings. Owing tocircumstances, this published report has been made anonymous regarding the company whowill further on be namedthe Company. The Company is aware that warranty claims producegreat costs and has requested a way of putting cost and cause to specific claims in order ofreceiving a more specific cost view and to make the reuse of knowledge more efficient.

The first version of the Swedish Code of Corporate Governance was published year 2004, by the code group, Kollegiet, after a mission from the Swedish government. The Code consists a collection of rules and standards about corporate governance and internal control, and the first version was intended to include incorporated limited companies on Stockholm?s alpha stocks, and also listed companies with a stock market value over three thousand million Swedish kronor. Now a few years have passed, and in July 2008 a new, revised version of the Code was implemented, now simplified and shorted, with the intention to include all joint-stock companies in Sweden. The Code contains rules about for example ownership, management commitments, annual stockholders meetings, and the accountant. This study intends to, with a qualitative research approach and an inductive reasoning, through studies of empirics in the subject, review whether the accountant?s profession has been influenced by the Code.